Archive for the ‘inspiration series’ Category
As you know from previous updates, “Kuruwitu: Between a Rock and a Hard Place” is one of the films we are currently producing under the Inspiration series. (If you would like to refresh your memory about this project, you can read my earlier entries here and here.) To follow is Simon Trevor’s latest field report, describing progress on the Kuruwitu project (don’t miss the photo-story which follows his account, showing the extraordinary success of the No Fishing Zone in rehabilitating Kuruwitu’s marine environment):
We are waiting for it to stop raining at the coast so that Lesley [Kenyan camerawoman working with AEFF] can record the latest increase in fish numbers. This will enable us to show the great changes that have taken place since we first started filming here, just after the local fishing community had declared this area a No Fishing Zone in order to provide a safe fish breeding ground and to allow the fish stocks to recover.
Lesley Hannah, cold and exhausted after another successful dive. Lesley is holding one of AEFF’s cameras in a special underwater housing which has enabled her to get such amazing footage of the changes taking place beneath the waves at Kuruwitu. Before we sign off on this film, we also feel we should include the arrival of the glass bottomed boats, which have been financed by a grant from the Community Environment Facility (under the Community Development Trust Fund, a joint EU-Kenya Government initiative). This will be such a momentous occasion, for it signals the beginning of new lives for the fishermen who will no longer have to rely on fishing for their livelihoods. We just hope that the tourist trade in Kenya will remain stable. To our delight, another community very close to Kuruwitu has already declared another No Fishing Zone in their area, and we were there to film the official opening. This time the coastal Director of Fisheries presided over the event and there has been great support from other government officials, especially the local government chiefs. In fact, the local officials were so excited that they were being filmed and their good intentions recorded, that they have since been imploring us to return to film their fish. Although this area, known as Bureni, is only a couple of kilometers from Kuruwitu, upon seeing Lesley’s latest underwater footage from there, I immediately noticed that the corals were of a different type and even the fish species were different. Of course both the coral and the fish were badly depleted but we now know that it will only be a matter of time before this area too will recover, just like Kuruwitu – provided the community can keep destructive elements at bay. This diversity within the marine ecosystem from one area to another shows how important it is to conserve more than just one or two isolated patches in order to benefit fully. In addition to Boreni, yet another community expressed interest in the Kuruwitu model, this time from the Lamu area, a considerable distance up the coast towards Somalia. The community members even came down to talk to the Kuruwitu fishermen and again we were there to record their wonderment at the fish at Kuruwitu. So it looks like AEFF shall have a camera team on the coast for a long time (as long as we can raise enough funding to make all these films!) What is interesting to note is that this need for films on the coast is repeated time and time again across the country, and indeed across the region. I have been struck many times by how many parallels there are between the forests and savannas and the marine environment. Now there’s another idea for a film… You’ll remember that in my previous post about progress on this film, I had promised to post some images…so here we have it: The Kuruwitu story in pictures… BEFORE THE NO FISHING ZONE WAS FORMED AT KURUWITU:
This is Kuruwitu in 2006, but it resembles much of Kenya’s underwater landscape beyond the Marine Parks these days. Huge areas have been denuded by irresponsible tourism (people breaking the coral heads with their feet while snorkeling), by over-utilization of fish and all other marine life (which has removed the creatures which keep the sea urchins in check), and by the effects of El Nino over ten years ago.
This was a typical sight before Kuruwitu was formed. Sea Urchins have completely destroyed this coral head, which has probably been living here for four hundred years. This area used to be one of the finest coral gardens on the East African coast but it was decimated by people’s feet trampling the coral while snorkeling and by the rough waters stirred up by the El Nino weather system in 1996. Most of the fish were caught and taken away for the aquarium trade. Some of the coral would also have been sold as living specimens across the world.
A new emerging coral head is fed upon by a sea urchin. “Urchin” is an old word for a spiny hedgehog. The urchins feed on the algae, which coat the coral and, as they do this, they undermine the coral heads, which then collapse. As a result of the removal of the creatures which feed on urchins, their numbers had risen so that new coral like this one could never grow to maturity.
Sea Urchins have completely devastated this area – scientists now term it “urchin barren”.
This man is searching for “the last” baby octopus. Local traditional fishermen have seen their stocks of fish plummet as more and more people arrive at the coast to concentrate on removing anything edible from the shallow waters along the reefs. Additionally more efficient fishing nets, scuba diving equipment, and motorized boats have increased the catches to such an extent that today, there is hardly anything left. So now there is little hope for a better life from fishing for most of the population along the coast, and other alternatives need to be found.
Tidal pools like this one are completely devoid of fish and no longer hold breeding fish stocks at low tide. These pools have been denuded of all life by over-exploitation, including by the international aquarium trade.
These coral reef fish represent the desperation that coastal people now face in their struggle for survival, for these are not traditional food species. Due to over-exploitation of fish all along Kenya’s 500km coastline, there are no larger fish here any more. These reef fish have far more value attracting and being seen by tourists who will pay time and time again to come and see them, but faced with hunger and no other options, people have no choice but to eat them. AFTER THE NO FISHING ZONE WAS FORMED AT KURUWITU:
These men are members of the Kuruwitu Conservation and Welfare Association. They are not wealthy in material terms but they have the most extraordinary asset right on their doorstep. The No Fishing Zone that they have voluntarily created is recovering and will soon provide the foundation for a better standard of living for this coastal community. Supported now by the Kenya Government and with funding from a European Union/Kenya Government financial grant, the local people will have the means to conduct snorkeling and glass bottom boat tours to their coral gardens. They now have the opportunity to change their way of life from fishing to tourism. This is only possible because of the astonishing recovery of the Kuruwitu area, for which they must take much of the credit.
There are thousands of different types of coral across the world. You may find this hard to believe but a coral is an animal. Thousands of free-swimming larvae drift across the oceans before attaching themselves to rocks where they develop into billions of living polyps, which secrete calcium carbonate skeletons. Over thousands of years whole reefs are formed in this way. People benefit from healthy reefs in many diverse ways.
Prior to the formation of the No Fishing Zone by the Conservation Association, the aquarium trade had removed nearly all the fish but here is living proof of the Association’s success and their determination and courage in the face of opposition from many sides. They have to contend not only with the professional aquarium traders in Kenya, who remove an uncontrolled number of fish and even living coral (on which fish rely for safe refuges and breeding places), but also with some other local fishing communities alongside the Kuruwitu area who have yet to see the benefits to all brought about by a No Fishing Zone and say they have sold the sea.
Here’s another urchin killer. This large ferocious Black Barred or Picasso Trigger fish is responsible for keeping those coral wreckers in check. But this fish is in great demand as an aquarium fish. It was aquarium suppliers who denuded the original Kuruwitu coral gardens and if it were not for the Conservation Association members, they would still be carrying out their destructive trade. A QUESTION FOR US ALL…
Beautiful Helmet Shells like this one have been removed from the coastal waters in their hundreds of thousands to sell to tourists. These creatures feed on sea urchins, and so the end result is that sea urchins proliferate uncontrollably. They are not the only creature that kills urchins and keeps their population in check but their almost total removal from the underwater environment has had a significant effect.
It has been calculated that the international seashell trade removes 2,200 tons of shells per year from the ocean. Why is it that we humans must remove everything we can from our environment when it looks so much more beautiful and natural in its rightful place? How many parents still encourage their children to collect shells during a stroll along the beach? In today’s world, there are just not enough shells left for that luxury.
Would you buy one of these cowrie shell necklaces after learning and seeing the effect of removing marine creatures from their natural home on Kenya’s coral reefs? ——– Please help us complete this educational film! AEFF requires a further $5,000 to complete the filming and postproduction work on this film. This will cover the cost of the editing, the writing, translating and recording of the narration (in English and Kiswahili, and hopefully in Giriama too - the tribal language of this coastal area) and all other finishing costs. In addition, we need to raise $3,750 to produce 500 multi-language DVD copies of the film for free distribution across Africa via our network of distribution partners including mobile cinemas, conservation organizations, educational institutions, terrestrial and satellite TV. This includes the cost of creating a DVD master, producing the covers, replicating the DVDs, packaging each DVD into a cover, freight of the DVDs from UK to Kenya (there are no reliable replication facilities in East Africa at present) and the significant cost of distributing each DVD to remote places across the continent. Once completed, this film will be seen by millions of people in its first year alone, and will forever endure as an important educational and historical document, charting the progress at Kuruwitu, and setting an example for others to follow in order to create a better life for themselves, without destroying the environment. Please help if you can….Thank you. Catch up on previous tales of Kuruwitu through our earlier posts:
As many of you will know, we are currently working on a series of films under the umbrella heading of “Inspiration”. Each Inspiration film highlights a specific issue, through the eyes of an individual (or small organization) who is involved. The series seeks to create role models, whom others can emulate and learn from. Each film will show how people are benefiting by adopting conservation-based or environmentally sustainable initiatives – benefiting not just in terms of personal wellbeing but financially too. One of our films centers on a man named Kahindi, “The Turtle Watcher” (see photos of Kahindi below). He is fanatical about saving sea turtles, which as you know are highly endangered, despite playing an important role in the biodiversity of our oceans. Working with the Watamu Turtle Watch, Kahindi’s job takes him from the beach where he monitors the coming ashore of turtles to lay their eggs, to the villages of fishing communities who – thanks to people like Kahindi spreading the word – now hand in turtles inadvertently caught in fishing nets. This means the turtles can be returned to the sea, instead of being killed. This is the latest filming report sent in from the field by Simon Trevor, head of AEFF’s production team… The final phase of the filming for our turtle film ended a week ago when Lesley Hannah [Kenyan camerawoman working with AEFF] was able to film a Green Turtle laying her eggs on a beach near Watamu on the Kenya coast.
Close up of the turtle laying her eggs deep in From the start, we felt that this was a vital sequence for the beginning of the film, and we had been waiting for an opportunity to film such an event. It has always struck me as strange that in wildlife documentary making, the beginning of a film is so often the last sequence to be captured on film. Nesting turtles have been witnessed many times around the world but few East Africans will have seen this amazing event… and it is amazing for many reasons. Turtles look old and they are old! (Surely Stephen Spielberg based his famous ET on a turtle? Just look at that head!) Turtles have been around for millions of years. In fact, it is said they would have witnessed the dinosaurs evolve and become extinct… so they would have been coming ashore during the hours of darkness to lay their eggs for aeons… Today in Kenya, as in many parts of the world, turtle nesting sites are becoming crowded out by human activities along the remaining sloping beaches. These secluded areas are vital for the successful hatching of their eggs. We at AEFF hope that this film will help people to understand the role turtles play in the biodiversity of the oceans and make an effort to conserve them. A female turtle returns to lay her eggs on the same shore where she was born, sometimes many years after the moment that she took that first gigantic step in her life of swimming out to sea as a tiny hatchling. She would have been one out of a thousand siblings to have survived and, in the interim period, would have covered hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of ocean. (Astonishingly, male turtles never return to land after they leave their natal beach.) Once a turtle returns to her birthplace to lay her eggs, she will come ashore as many as four times, with intervals of ten to fifteen days between each laying. She can deposit as many as one hundred eggs at a time. This knowledge gave us a better chance of being in the right place at the right time to film a nesting turtle but the odds against us were still formidable. One particular turtle came ashore at 1.30am, but was not spotted until she was already on her way back out to sea. Having spent many exhausting hours searching the beaches over several consecutive nights, Lesley was bitterly disappointed to have missed the turtle coming ashore. But, as the Watamu Turtle Watch ‘watchers’ knew, turtles sometimes come ashore but return to the sea without laying their eggs. This behaviour is known as a “false crawl”. So they all decided to wait and see if she would return again that night somewhere along the same beach… Lo and behold, at 3.30am the enormous reptile reappeared. She came ashore again and this time she settled down to dig a hole for her eggs. Lesley and the ‘watchers’ were careful not to disturb her while she was busy digging, for with the slightest disturbance at this point, she would desert the nest and her precious eggs would be lost forever. Filming could not begin until the turtle was actually dropping her rubbery eggs into the cavity she had dug with her flippers. Once she started laying, nothing seemed to bother her, she just carried on laying. Kahindi was able to walk right up to her and check her flippers. Everyone at Watamu Turtle Watch was excited to see a metal tag they had attached to this same turtle five years ago – when she was laying eggs in exactly the same spot! She was the largest turtle they had ever seen and would have weighed in the region of 250 kilos [550 pounds].
Kahindi checks the tag on the turtle’s flipper, placed there By the time the turtle had laid her eggs and covered the nest it was 8 o’clock in the morning. Fortunately for the turtle, it was a rainy morning so there were no tourists to disturb her on the beach. The only humans who arrived to watch were hotel security guards, no doubt attracted by the “turtle watchers” on the beach so early in the morning. They were amazed and then fascinated by the mother turtle’s behaviour. When our film is finished and is shown on mobile cinemas and on TV, I can imagine how these guards will dine out on how they were actually there when it was being filmed!
8am: the exhausted mother turtle, having covered over her eggs with Just as the turtle laboriously began to haul her huge bulk back towards the ocean, the heavens opened and the rain came down in buckets. Lesley had seen the gathering clouds and had guessed this was going to happen so she had run back down the beach to get an umbrella. And that was how she was able to film the culmination of this amazing event, huddled beneath an umbrella, capturing that magical moment that the mother turtle, her awesome task completed, returned exhausted to the ocean. Well done, Lesley! When you see the film, readers, as I hope you will, you will now know what went on behind the scenes…
As the turtle heads back to the sea, the rain starts pouring down…
Kahindi watches over her as the mother turtle reaches the waves
And off she goes, beneath the pouring rain, back into the ocean…
Simon Trevor went back to the coast in the middle of March to film the ongoing story of Kuruwitu – the marine protected area originally set up by a group of local land owners and the local fishermen. Following on from his earlier report (which you can read in my previous post on this blog), he now has the following news for us: “One set back was immediately explained to us. The Kuruwitu boat, which we had intended to use to film a patrol, had been turned over and as a result the engine was no longer functioning. Oh well. Every time we look below the surface of the sea new events are happening as the underwater environment ‘comes back to life’. This time Lesley Hannah [freelance Kenyan camerawoman working wih AEFF on marine cinematography] filmed baby Trigger Fish. The Trigger Fish is one of a number of creatures that kill and eat sea urchins. The sea urchins kill the coral so when the fish are over exploited the sea urchins proliferate and down comes the whole balanced ecosystem. She filmed the dreaded Crown of Thorns starfish, a sinister looking creature covered in poisonous spines which is one of the main predators on coral. Also filmed were the sellers of sea shells in Malindi [town 100km north of Mombasa], where there are usually hordes of tourists eager for a bargain. These traders buy many different marine animals from fishermen who have no idea the effect this has on their livelihoods. (There were masses of cowries, clams, helmet shells, conch shells, shark heads and the remains of many other creatures.) If you take the Helmet Shells for example. These beautiful brilliant red creatures, sometimes larger than a tennis ball, eat sea urchins. So when they are removed the urchins multiply, the coral dies, there is nowhere for certain species of fish to lay their eggs, the young fish who use the coral to hide from predators have nowhere to hide and before long there are no new fish to take the place of those caught by fishermen. So the man who sells the shell to the trader for short term gain is destroying his own life. The tourist, who should perhaps know better, but probably doesn’t either, needs to be educated as well. There’s so much we can teach people through our programs if we capture the information on film. There was much excitement when I arrived as Lesley had just finished filming a spear fisherman diving outside the reef. It took some courage to go into the rough surging water and follow him down as he free dived with his homemade spear gun to a depth of fifteen metres. Spear gun fishing is illegal in Kenya but many local people practice it. The man Lesley filmed has been doing it for 25 years and is an ardent supporter of Kuruwitu. Some people will not appreciate that we filmed this but we believe that it should be shown so that everyone can form their own opinion as to what is right and what is wrong. He fires his gun many times before he makes a strike. Then when he has three fish, with a total weight of around a kilo, he calls it a day. That is what he eats for that day, with a little left to sell. He has to live off this kind of fishing until such time as alternative ways of supporting himself are found. That is precisely what Kuruwitu will provide once their plans for tourism ventures mature and when the fish stocks inside the protected area spread out into the fishing areas. Up to now this kind of spear gun fishing has not made much of a dent on the fish stocks but more and more people are becoming fishermen – of sorts – and so now the environmental balance is under threat from this kind of fishing too. Another good reason for the formation of marine reserves such as Kuruwitu. We rounded up with hiring a plane and filming the coast from the air. This revealed graphically how much development has taken place along the coast and how much forest has been cut down to build hotels and residences. Yesterday we went to Mida creek [near Watamu, north of Mombasa] with the idea of filming fishermen at work. However, as we set out on foot towards the creek, carrying cameras and all our equipment, the heavens opened and we had to beat a hasty retreat back to the camera car, where we consoled ourselves with a hot cup tea from our thermos. With the skies clearing, we headed back and boarded a rickety dugout canoe. Dugout canoes are notorious for their lack of stability and it didn’t take me long to wonder how I was going to handle a movie camera from such an unstable platform. At the same moment - to my horror - I saw water rising rather fast in the bottom of the canoe. Our canoe-man cheerfully said he would start bailing soon but I insisted we return immediately because by then the water level was only an inch or two from the camera bags. So that was the end of that episode. We plan to start again with a larger and more stable boat with no leaks.”
Filming on AEFF’s Inspiration Series of films is well underway. As explained in the previous post, this is a series which highlights individuals and small organizations who are making a living out of doing something positive for conservation and their environment - in the films, these individuals are presented as role models, setting a good example which others can emulate when they see the films. In this way, shared experiences can be passed across the continent, bringing benefits to people, wildlife and the environment on a wide scale. The power of the moving image for imparting information that is inspiring, memorable and useful cannot be underestimated, which is what makes AEFF’s films such potent educational tools in the conservation field. Simon Trevor, at the head of AEFF’s film production team, sent in this report at the beginning of March, updating us on two of the Inspiration film projects he is spearheading, both of which are being filmed on Kenya’s coast north of Mombasa, and feature important marine issues: “Watamu Turtle Watch: This film, about the work of the Kenyan NGO Watamu Turtle Watch, is now about 80% complete. It follows the activities of WTW’s Field Manager Kahindi who is an exceptional man. His meticulous approach to his work to rescue turtles that have been caught in fishermen’s nets comes across as we see him going about his daily activities. WTW have now rescued over three thousand six hundred turtles in the last seven years. Villagers take the unfortunate turtles back to their homes and alert Kahindi who duly comes along, collects the turtle and returns them to the sea. The villagers are paid for keeping the turtles alive. The alternative would be that in most cases the turtles would be killed and eaten. Kahindi also documents all turtle movements and knows almost to the day when a turtle is likely to return to Kenyan shores to lay her eggs. This is done at night and one has to be very careful not to disturb the turtle. We are now hoping to film this during March. Freelance camerawoman, Lesley Hannah, filmed two outstanding sequences recently for AEFF. The first one featured 100 baby Green Turtles hatching during the afternoon. The second sequence shows a Hawkesbill turtle feeding on sponges, while a small black fish frantically rams itself at the turtle’s head. We think this was to try and distract the turtle away from its eggs. Kuruwitu: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Forty years ago, this area on the coastal reef just north of Vipingo, near Mombasa, used to be one of the most extraordinary coral gardens on the entire Kenya coast. However, due to the ravages of the aquarium trade, the tropical fish and the corals themselves were virtually destroyed. The number of sea urchins covering the entire area bears testimony to the fact that the fish that eat them had been fished out, the helmet shells and the starfish, which also eat them, had been sold to tourists. The sea urchins undermine the corals by feeding on algae causing them to collapse and die. In 2002 a group of local people, wealthy homeowners and local fishermen joined forces to declare the area a ‘No Fishing Zone’. Although at the time they had no legal status, they persevered and today the area has been legalised as a Community Marine Reserve. They have just received a grant of 17 million shillings ($250,000) from a donor organisation to allow them to diversify their activities and earn a living from the area without resorting to fishing. We have been filming here for almost two years now, with all the underwater sequences being shot by Lesley Hannah. One hundred thousand years ago, the sea was much higher than it is today and in a patch of coastal forest nearby there are caves, which would have contained fish and other marine creatures of that period. Today, just offshore in the existing reef there are more caves and we filmed a fishermen swimming deep into them to catch small fish with primitive nets made from mosquito nets. He was able to hold his breath for three minutes and Lesley was able to follow him by using diving equipment. With breakers crashing overhead and the current swirling back and forth, this was no mean feat on her part. We wonder if the same scenario was carried out by primitive man all those years ago? We also filmed the work of Dr Tim MacClannahan who has been monitoring the marine environment here for ten years. We filmed him lifting out a chunk of concrete into which he had inserted a thermometer a year ago. Since then it has given him around one thousand readings – as I was filming him and he was saying it would take a chisel to open it, the concrete suddenly parted and there was the thermometer, still intact and working away. We were able to film a starfish devouring an urchin by straddling it and crushing it. We wonder how many tourists realise they are upsetting the whole ecological balance, and even the livelihoods of people in the long run, when they buy dried starfish to take home. We also filmed the demise of a number of turtles caught in illegal nets set by fishermen from Tanzania. These people had come up the coast, stolen five hundred metres of nest, set them and left them for two nights. The Kuruwitu Conservation people saw this activity and went to collect Kenya Wildlife Service rangers who were able to arrest the culprits. We hope to finish this film during the next six months and to narrate it in several languages, including Giriama, the local language of this section of the coast.” — We are seeking funding for the production of DVD copies of these two films in several African languages, for free distribution to conservation organizations and educational institutions continent-wide. When you consider that most local fishermen (let alone people living further inland) have never seen below the surface of the sea, it is clear these two films will have a tremendous educational impact, showing how it is not just ecosystems on land which are jeopardized by mismanagement, but ecosystems underwater too. Equally, marine environments also have the potential to earn revenue for local communities, if managed correctly. Because high quality replication facilities do not yet exist in East Africa (we tried to produce a recent batch of DVDs in Nairobi, only to have to recall them all due to malfunction), AEFF uses a DVD replication service in London. The total cost per DVD is $7.50, which includes the replication cost, the printing of the cover and the shipping to Africa from UK. On average, we produce 1,000 DVD copies of each of our films, for free distribution to all our distribution outlets, at a total cost of $7,500 per film. For the two films mentioned above, therefore, we are seeking a total of $15,000 to produce 1,000 copies each, in various languages, print the covers, ship them to Africa and distribute them. Please help us if you can by making a donation - large or small, it all adds up and makes a positive difference. Thank you.
AEFF’s major new project, currently underway, is a series of half-hour films, under the heading “Inspiration”. Each film focuses on a particular individual (or small organization) who is doing something positive for conservation and the environment, with a view to improving their community’s quality of life, and preserving biodiversity. These people/organizations are presented as role models, and will illustrate that even a single person or a small local project can have an impact and make a real difference. As a whole, the series will cover a broad range of environmental and conservation issues, and show ways of dealing with them, from the rural village level to government level. For example, the people featured may range from a rural villager who is planting trees or looking after the coral reefs in his area, to the Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service who is operating at a policy level. In addition, AEFF is in the process of re-narrating some existing films into new languages. These are “Tiva: A River of Sand” and “The Rains Came”. The former tells the story of one of the longest droughts ever in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park, where no rain fell for four years, apparently devastating the landscape. The film shows how the wild animals were able to survive, against incredible odds. “The Rains Came” illustrates the miraculous way in which nature bounced back when the rains did eventually fall, and Tsavo was transformed almost overnight for a desert into a lush green and productive habitat. Finally, a new film edited entirely from existing AEFF library material, is entitled “Cats and Dogs”: a fascinating insight into the lives of predators in the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania, specifically Lions and Wild Dogs. Read about AEFF’s completed films |
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